The filing and the numbers at stake
Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, on Monday filed its initial public offering request with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, aiming for a Nasdaq debut under the ticker “ANT” as early as November, according to The Korea Herald. The company reportedly aims to raise up to $100 billion at a valuation of up to $2 trillion, a level that would surpass SpaceX’s $75 billion record from June. The filed document indicates neither the number of shares offered nor the price range.
If confirmed, the transaction would make Anthropic the first major frontier-model developer to go public, ahead of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and could significantly increase the value of investments made by Korean companies. This is, however, a prospect: the listing has not yet taken place, and the final financial terms remain to be defined.
SK Telecom at the forefront; the other Korean players
SK Telecom is one of Anthropic’s earliest backers: it invested $100 million in August 2023, when the startup was valued at $5 billion, and then acquired another 157,189 shares for about $100 million in the first half of this year. The carrying value of the stake reached 3.51 trillion won ($2.65 billion) at the end of June, compared with 1.38 trillion won at the end of last year. If the IPO values the company at $2 trillion, the stake could be worth about 7.26 trillion won.
The telecom operator has said it intends to keep the investment rather than cash out after the listing. “We will continue to strengthen our role in the global AI ecosystem as an infrastructure company through our partnership with Anthropic,” a company official told The Korea Herald. CEO Jung Jai-hun expressed a similar position in Tokyo in June, saying he would prioritize continuing investment and cooperation over realizing capital gains.
Naver and LG CNS are also positioned to benefit from their investments and commercial ties with the U.S. developer. Naver reportedly invested about 10 billion won through an external venture capital fund, via its subsidiary Naver Ventures, in the second half of last year; LG CNS invested in 2023 through LG Technology Ventures. Also according to the newspaper, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix each reportedly invested at least 1 trillion won in May.
Beyond financial gain: what remains to be verified
Industry observers see the investments as part of Korean chipmakers’ efforts to expand AI partnerships beyond semiconductor supply, toward software and agents. For Naver, the integration is already operational: Claude Code has been introduced into development teams, alongside its proprietary HyperClova X model in a multi-model strategy. LG CNS signed an agreement in June to adopt Claude Enterprise, Anthropic’s enterprise platform, to expand its digital transformation business. SK Telecom and Anthropic are collaborating on a language model dedicated to telecommunications, and the opening of an Anthropic office in Seoul could deepen cooperation on infrastructure and enterprise services.
For these companies, the listing could be worth more than a financial return: a successful debut would strengthen the startup’s ability to invest in infrastructure and enterprise services, with possible new opportunities for Korean partners. The size of the gains will nevertheless depend on the final IPO valuation and the stock’s subsequent performance: higher valuations would not automatically translate into immediate profits, especially for those intending to keep their stake. Still to be verified are the offer price and number of shares, the actual valuation at debut, and confirmation of the figures reported on Samsung Electronics’ and SK hynix’s investments, which are not documented in the filing.
